/■I 

/^7 




DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED IN QDINCY, MAROU 11, 1848, 



AT THE INTEBMENT OF 



JOHN QUmCT ADAMS, 



0i?etl) (President of tl)c ^niub States. 



BY WILLIAM P. LUNT, 



HINI8TER OB THE PIRST N RE ATI M AL CHURCH IN QOINCT. 



LIBRRRY OF CONGRESS 

RECEIVED 

FEB 19 1902 

OM510N OF DOCUHENTS. 
BOSTON: 

BUTTON AND WENTWOETH, STATE PKINTEKS, 
No. 37, Congress Strest. 

1848. 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED IN QUINCY, MARCH 11, 1848, 



AT THE INTERMENT OF 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 



SIXTH PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WILLIAM P. LUNT, 

MINISTER OF THE PIIIST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN QCINCT. 



BOSTON: 

Button and wentworth, state printers, 

No. 37, Congress Street. 

1848. 



QTommontDcalll) of illassarliusctto. 



In Senate, April 21st, 1848. 

Ordered, That the Clerk of the Senate be directed to procure, for 
the use of the members of the Legislature, two thousand copies of the 
Funeral Discourse delivered in Quincy, on Saturday, March 11th, by 
Rev. Wm. p. Lunt, on the life and services of Hon. John Qutncy 

Adams. 

Sent down for concurrence. 

CHAS. CALHOUN, Clerk. 



House of Representatives, April 22, 1848. 

Concurred. 

C. W. STOREY, Clerk. 



At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements, chosen by the Town of Quincy to super- 
inU'nd the funeral ceremonies of the late lion. John QuiNcr Ad.^ms, holden at the Town 
Hall, on the 14th of March, A. D. 1848 :— 

It was Voted, That the thanks of this Committee, in behalf of the 
citizens of the town of Quincy, be presented to the Rev. William P. 
Lunt, for the appropriate, interesting, and excellent Discourse delivered 
by liira on the eleventh instant, at the funeral of the Hon. John Quincy 
Adams, and that a copy of the same be respectfully requested for publi- 
cation. 

Voted, That Messrs. Josiah Brigham, Orange Clark, Daniel Baxter, 

and William S. Morton, be a committee to carry the above resolution 

into effect. 

THOMAS GREENLEAF, 

Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. 

Wm. S. Morton, Secretary. 
Quincy, March 14, 1848. 



Rev. William P. Lunt, 
Dear Sir, 
The undersigned, selected to communicate the above resolution to you, 
take great pleasure in performing that ser\'ice, fully believing that so 
beautiful and feeling a tribute to moral worth and greatness deserv'es our 
warmest thanks, and that your interesting and truthful illustration of the 
life and character of him who was " faithful unto death," should not be 
withheld from the public. 

With assurances of our individual respect and regard, 
We are, Rev. and Dear Sir, 

Your obedient servants, 

JOSIAH BRIGHAM, 
ORANGE CLARK, 
DANIEL BAXTER, 
WILLIAM S. MORTON. 
Quincy, March 14, 1848. 



To Messrs. Josiaii Buigham, Orange Clark, Daniel Baxter, and 

William S. Morton : — 
Gentlemen, 

I have received through your hands, accompanied by your note, the 
Votes passed March 14, 1848, at a meeting of the Committee of Ar- 
rangements appointed, in behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Quincy, 
to superintend the funeral ceremonies at the interment of the late Ex- 
President John Quincy Adams. 

In compliance with the request contained in one of those votes, I will, 
at once, prepare for publication a copy of the Discourse delivered on the 
eleventh instant. It affords me satisfaction to be permitted to unite with 
the committee of the native place of Mr. Adams, in the performance of 
what is really a Christian duty, rendering "honor to Avhom honoris 
due." 

Accept my thanks, gentlemen, for the kind terms in which you have 
conveyed the votes and wishes of the committee to which you belong, 
with assurances of respect and friendship from 

Your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM P. LUNT. 

Quincy, March 15, 1848. 



Boston, March 13, 1848. 
Rev. Wm. p. Lunt, 

Dear and Rev. Sir, 

The Congressional Committee, charged with the interesting but sor- 
rowful duty of accompanying the remains of their late lamented brother, 
John Q. Adams, to the place of their interment at Quincy, have desired 
me to solicit from you a copy of your Discourse, delivered upon the occa- 
sion of his funeral. 

Congress has already ordered that twenty thousand copies of the pro- 
ceedings, &c., attending the demise of Mr. Adams, should be printed ; 
and it would afford the committee great pleasure to place, in the hands of 
every member of Congress, and, as far as possible, in the hands of their 
constituents, this eloquent tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead. 



6 

Could you, at your earliest convenience, transmit a copy of your ad- 
dress to me at Washington, you would greatly gratify the committee, 
and particularly oblige. 

Rev. Sir, very truly, 

Your obedient servant, 

F. A. TALLMADGE, 

Chairman of Committee, ^c. 



QuiNCY, March 17, 1848. 
To Hon. F. A. Tallmadge, 

Chairman of Congressional Committee, ^c. 
Dear Sir, 
Your favor of the thirteenth instant, requesting, in the name of the 
committee appointed by Congress, a copy of the Discourse delivered at 
the interment of your associate and our fellow-worshipper and fellow- 
townsman, the late John Quincy Adams, was not received in time for 
me to reply before you must have left Boston. 

The committee, appointed to act in behalf of the inhabitants of the 
native place of Mr. Adams, and to make arrangements for his funeral, 
had, before the receipt of your kind letter, asked for the publication of 
the Discourse, and their request had been acceded to, and the manuscript 
is now in the hands of the printers. 

This will not, however, prevent my complying with your wishes, and 
sending to you at Washington, at the earliest time possible, a copy of 
the Discourse, to be placed at the disposal of the committee of which you 
are chairman. 

I beg you to convey, to the several members of the Congressional 
Committee, my grateful respects, and to assure them of the high value 
I shall ever attach to their approbation of my services on the recent 
affecting occasion. 

With many thanks for the favorable terms in which you do me the 
honor to express yourself, 

I am, dear Sir, 

Truly and respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

W. P. LUNT. 



DISCOURSE. 



Revelation II. 10. 



BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE THEE 

A CROWN OF LIFE. 

The Apostle James uses language similar to that 
contained in my text, when he declares, " Blessed is 
the man that endureth temptation ; for, when he is 
tried, he shall receive the crown of life." 

In various modes of speech the Scriptures express 
the truth, that man's life on the earth is a probation. 
Human beings, in this world, are on trial, and their 
quahties are put to the test. Their patience and 
confidence in Providence are tested — by what they 
suffer ; their meekness and forbearance — by the 
wrongs and persecutions to which they are exposed ; 
their general fidehty — by the amount of resistance 
which they oppose to the temptations that beset them. 
This trial goes on in the case of each individual, and 
ceases not until death terminates his probation. The 
" crown of life," which religion holds up in promise, is 



8 

reserved until death puts an end to human efforts, 
and allows a fair and conclusive estimate to be made 
of the merits of those who have striven for that 
crown. None can be pronounced safe, except " he 
that endureth to the end." 

But the judgments of the world are, in many ma- 
terial respects, different from the judgments of scrip- 
tural truth. The world is frequently ready to crown 
him who exhibits in his conduct some single virtue ; 
who performs some one brilliant or commendable act. 
Struck with blind admiration of the solitary virtue, 
the world applauds, and offers a crown. But what 
security is there for the virtue which has only once 
or but a few times been practised, which is prompted 
veiy likely by sudden impulse, which has no root in 
a principle implanted in the soul ? And how can we 
know that our own virtue, or that of others, has this 
rooted firmness of principle, until repeated trials give 
assurance of the fact? Religion, therefore, always 
leaves it as an open and undecided question whether 
a person is saved, whether he is entitled to the re- 
wards of the perfect state, until death removes the 
possibility of his lapsing into error and sin. "Be 
thou faitliful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life, ' — is the declaration of him who is holy and 
true. 

And there is one other particular in which we may 
contrast the judgment of tlie world with the righteous 



9 

judgment of God. The word of God declares that 
the " crown of hfe " will be awarded to the " faithful." 
Now faithfulness imphes moral qualities. Not the 
favorites of fortune; not the gifted possessors of 
genius ; not they who, by descent, ai'e children of 
Abraham, while they fail to prove their title by 
showing the only proper vouchers, — the virtues of 
Abraham reproduced in their own chai'acters ; not 
the great of this world, who " exercise authority " 
over their fellow-men, who are greeted by their titles 
of kings, presidents, judges ; — not these, without 
further question, shall, according to the perfect judg- 
ment of God, receive the " crown of life," but the 
" faithful." " The righteous shall be held in ever- 
lasting remembrance." " The memorial of virtue " is 
pronounced by the Wise Man to be " immortal. When 
it is present, men take example at it ; and when it is 
gone, they desire it ; it weareth a crown, and triumph- 
eth forever," 

And if the rewards of the future life are to be 
awarded according to moral desert, why should not 
our judgments of the characters and claims of those 
who are candidates for our suffrages, whose place in 
the consideration of the world is to be settled, whose 
reputation remains to be determined by their contem- 
poraries or by posterity, — why should not our judg- 
ments be governed by the same principle ? On whose 
head shall we, when called to decide upon the merits 
2 



10 

of our fellow-men, place the " crown of life ? " Shall 
we not give it to him who has been " faithful unto 
death ? " And the longer death is postponed by a 
gracious Providence, and the more hazai'ds virtue has 
incurred by such postponement, is not the merit of 
the individual thereby enhanced, and are not his claims 
to distinction and honor proportionably strengthened ? 
And can any of us question whether the crown 
would be worthily bestowed, if we were to confer it, 
with deference to a tribunal higher than ours, upon 
that individual who has recently fallen, " the beauty 
of " our " Israel," upon the " high places " of the land ; 
and whose remains we are now to convey, with all 
suitable marks of respect and honor, to their final 
resting-place ? The sacred edifice in which we ai^e 
assembled brings up before the mind the venerable 
idea of him, who, in the interval between the annual 
suspension of his public duties, and the time for 
resuming them, at the capital of the nation, was 
always found here in his seat, a constant, candid, 
devout worshipper. With a simplicity of manner truly 
republican and Christian, he walked to the house of 
God in company with his neighbors ; prayed with us 
at tliis altai' ; communed with us at this table of the 
Lord ; meditated with us, a brother with brethren, on 
that truth which has been revealed by God for human 
salvation; consented repeatedly to accompany the 
pastor of this church, as a delegate, to assist in ordi- 



11 

nations among the neighboring Christian churches, 
according to our congregational usages ; asked for the 
prayers of the church in his own afflictions and be- 
reavements ; contributed the compositions of his devo- 
tional genius to the sacred songs in which we are 
wont to celebrate the perfections of God ; and, in 
every way, lent the influence of his example to give in- 
creased efficacy to Christian truth in the community. 

It is altogether fit and proper, therefore, that the 
lifeless remains of our fellow- Christian should be 
brought here, on their way to the place prepared for 
the dead ; and that, while we express our sympathy 
with those whose hearts have been most deeply 
wounded by this providence, we should review his 
long, useful and illustrious life ; recount the principal 
incidents in his career, although they may be familiar 
to many who are here present ; and draw, from the 
history of his public services and from his well known 
character, such lessons as may be edifying. That life 
is full of instruction for the young and for the old. 
The Scripture word " faithful " is to no one more appli- 
cable than to the departed. It is, in truth, the word, 
by which, more perhaps than by any other in the 
language, his character may best be described. He 
was " faithful unto death ;" and to him belongs, so 
far as it is permitted to mortals to decide, the " crown 
of life." 

John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail 



u 

(Smith) Ailams, was born, in a house still standing in 
the near vicinity of that in which his father had been 
born, witliin what is now Quincy, and was then Brain- 
tree, July 11,1767; and, as was usual with our Puritan 
ancestors, was baptized in the meeting-house of this 
church, by its pastor, the Rev. Anthony Wibird, on 
the day following his birth, according to the entry in 
the Church Records in Mr. Wibu-d's handwriting. 

The name of John Quincy, which was given to the 
infant, had been borne by the maternal great grand- 
father of Mr. Adams, a man of wealth and deserved 
consequence in the town and colony, in honor of whom 
the town of Quincy, when it was separated from the 
old town of Braintree, and made a distinct corpora- 
tion, was named, and who was dying when John 
Quincy Adams came into the world. 

This gentleman, whose residence was at Mount 
Wollaston, within the limits of the town of Quincy, 
died July 13th, 1767, in the seventy-eighth year of 
his age. He was a graduate of Harvard College, 
where (to use the words of an obituary notice which 
appeared in one"*' of the two papers which alone con- 
stituted the newspaper press of that period in the 
town of Boston,) " early in life a foundation was laid 
for his usefulness ; it was not long after he received 
the honors of this Society before he appeared in pub- 
lic life. His first appearance was in the mihtia ; he 

• Boston Post-Boy. 



13 

rose from tlie command of a company to that of a 
regiment. He was honored with divers civil com- 
missions ; those of a common justice of the peace, a 
special justice, a justice of the quorum, and a justice 
through the province. He was early chosen to rep- 
resent the town of Braintree, and was, for a great 
number of years. Speaker of the Honorable House 
of Kepresentatives, and for many years one of His 
Majesty's Council; all which important trusts he 
discharged with fidelity, honor, and to universal ac- 
ceptance, ever approving himself a true friend to the 
interest and prosperity of the Province ; a zealous 
advocate for, and vigorous defender of, its liberties 
and privileges. He had a high sense of his account- 
ableness to the Supreme Governor of the world, for 
the trusts reposed in him, and studiously avoided an 
ensnaring dependency on any man, and whatever 
should tend to lay him under any disadvantage in the 
discharge of his duty. He was neai* forty years en- 
gaged in the service of the public. Being blessed 
with an ample fortune, he devoted his time, his fac- 
ulties, and influence, to the service of his country. 
In private life, he was exemplary. He adorned the 
Christian profession by an holy life, a strict observ- 
ance of the Lord's day, and a constant attendance 
upon the pubhc ordinances of rehgion. In one 
word, he was a gentleman true to his trust, dihgent 
and active in public business, punctual in promises 



14 

and appointments, just towai-ds all men, and devout 
towai'ds God." 

Such is the character given to the Honorable John 
Quincy by his contemporaries. And to all who en- 
joyed only common opportunities of understanding 
the quaUties that were blended in the character of 
the venerable patriot whose remains ai'e before us, it 
must be plain, that a name and a portion of his for- 
tune were not the only inheritance which descended 
to the child who Avas then commencing, from the 
ancestor who was, at the same time, closing his 
earthly career. How much importance Mr. Adams 
attached, through hfe, to the cuxumstance in which a 
portion of his name originated, will appear from his 
own words, which I am allowed to quote from a letter 
addressed by him, on the subject, to a friend. 

He says : " The house at Mount Wollaston has a 
pecuhar interest to me as the dwelhng of my great 
grandfather, whose name I beai'. The incident which 
gave rise to this cu'cumstance is not without its moral 
to my heart. He was dying when I Avas baptized ; 
and his daughter, my grandmother, present at my 
birth, requested that I might receive his name. The 
fact, recorded by my father at the time, has connected 
witli that portion of my name a chai-m of mingled 
sensibility and devotion. It was fihal tenderness that 
gave the name. It was the name of one passing from 
earth to immortality. These have been among the 



15 

strongest links of my attachment to the name of 
Quincy, and have been to me, through hfe, a per- 
petual admonition to do nothing unworthy of it." 

Mr. Adams's ancestors on the paternal side were 
worthy specimens of the Puritan emigrants who set- 
tled this northern portion of the American continent ; 
who had left " dear England," as they affectionately 
called their native land, only for the sake of what to 
them was still dearer, freedom of the mind and soul. 
And if we separate into distinct parts the aggregate 
of the blessings which have accrued to the world, 
from the Christian enterprise, into the wilderness, of 
those heroic men and women, who, more than two 
centuries since, ventured their all here for God and for 
posterity, it is not perhaps too much to say, that no 
richer, riper fruit has dropped from the tree of the 
Pilgrims' planting, than that which has now, alas ! 
been plucked by insatiate death. 

Henry Adams, from whom the venerable man, lately 
deceased, traced his origin, came to New England 
early in the seventeenth centuiy, and was probably 
here when this Christian Church was gathered, in 
1639. He was the first town clerk of Braintree ; he 
(hed October 8th, 1646, and was buried in the neigh- 
boring graveyard, where the " forefathers of the hamlet 
sleep." Joseph, son of Henry Adams, died December 
6th, 1694, aged sixty-eight years. Joseph, son of 
Joseph, died February 12th, 1736, at the age of 



IG 

eighty-four years. His son, John, was a deacon of 
this ancient Church, and died May 25th, 1761, aged 
seventy yeai's. John Adams, the second President 
of the United States, was son of the deacon of Brain- 
tree Church, and died, as is well known, on the 
fourth of July, 1826, at the advanced age of ninety- 
one yeai's, just half a century after signing his name 
to the Declaration of Independence. So that the dis- 
tinguished individual, who has recently been removed 
from life, belonged to the fifth generation in regular 
descent from the first settlers of this part of the 
country. The epitaph placed, by the first President 
Adams, upon one of the monuments erected by him 
in honor of his ancestors, makes mention of " their 
piety, humility, simphcity, prudence, patience, tem- 
perance, frugality, industry, and perseverance ;" qual- 
ities which were certainly reproduced in the character 
of their illustrious descendant. 

But if the remote stock from which Mr. Adams 
sprung was favorable to his character, he was even 
more blessed in his pai'ents. The period, too, when 
he entered into life, and the circumstances which 
existed at that particular period, would not fail to 
make, upon an ingenuous nature, a deep, solemn and 
permanent impression. The difficulties between the 
mother country and her colonies on this continent had 
commenced, and were assuming, from day to day, a 
more threatening aspect. The spirit of resistance, 



ir 

wliicli had been awakened in the mmds of the people 
by the writings and speeches of the friends of hberty, 
was fast ripening into acts of resistance. One scene 
after another of the great drama was unfuklcd before 
the young and wondering eyes of our departed friend. 
Blood was at length shed, and hostihties commenced. 
The father is a prominent leader in the ranks of 
one of the contending parties. He has quitted his 
family to attend upon the deliberations of the Conti- 
nental Congress. The son, left at home with his 
mother, in the neighborhood of a besieged town ; wit- 
nessing, as he did, from yonder eminence near his 
home, the flames of burning Charlestown, on the day, 
sacred in the national annals, when Warren was giv- 
ing up his life in the cause of liberty ; seeing and 
hearing, under the roof of his parents, where they 
were hospitably received, parties of volunteers, who 
were on their way to join the patriot forces near Bos- 
ton, and listening to the calm and pious counsels of 
the admirable matron, to whom he delighted, through 
life, to acknowledge his indebtedness, and whom he 
speaks of, in a letter to a friend, as " my almost 
adored mother;" — the son, under these circum- 
stances, must have had kindled in his susceptible 
nature an enthusiasm which became the inward source 
of patriotic pulsations that continued through life. 
Such a childhood was a fit opening of the manhood 
and the age that followed. 



18 

Nor was it only at home that the youthful Adams 
received into his soul those impressions which formed 
the best portion of his education. 

In 1778, hcing then a lad in the eleventh year of 
his age, he was taken to France by his father, who 
was sent by Congress as joint commissioner, with 
Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, to the French 
court. The vessel in which they embarked — the 
frigate Boston, under the command of Captain Tucker 
— lay at anchor in Nantasket Roads, and a barge was 
sent for Mr. Adams and his son to the beach back of 
Mount ^N^ollaston. While abroad, the son was placed 
at school, and instructed in the French and Latin 
languages. But his best school was, doubtless, the 
great world into which he was introduced; and his 
most valuable lessons, if we except the letters which 
he received from his mother, must have been derived 
from the conversations of the distinguished and ex- 
cellent men to whose society he was admitted. He 
was especially fond of recalling, at the close of life, 
the dehght he felt, as a boy, in listening to the 
amusing and instructive conversation of Dr. Franklin, 
who was a universal favorite with both sexes and with 
all ages. He returned home with his father the fol- 
lowing year, in the French frigate La Sensible, the 
same vessel that brought the Chevalier de La Luzerne, 
who came as Minister from France to the United 
States. They arrived in this country in August, 
1779. 



19 

After a short stay at home, the elder Adams was 
once more despatched to Europe on pubhc busmess, 
and the son again accompanied his father. They 
embarked on the 14th of November, 1779, from 
Boston, in the French frigate. The vessel was leaky, 
and was obliged to put into Ferrol, a port in Spain ; 
and from thence they proceeded by land to France, 
and, after a few months, to Holland. \Yhile they re- 
mained in Holland, the son was some time at school 
in Amsterdam, and afterwards was a student in the 
University of Leyden.* 

In 1781, John Quincy Adams, at that time only 
fourteen years of age, was placed under the care of 
the Honorable Francis Dana, who had been appointed 
Minister from the United States to Russia, and was 
taken by that gentleman, as his private secretary, to 
St. Petersburg. There he remained until October, 
1782, when he left Mr. Dana, and made the journey 
alone to Holland, passing through Sweden, Denmark, 
Hamburg, and Bremen. He arrived in Holland, 
where he joined his father, in April, 1783. He was 
in Paris when the treaty of peace was signed, which 

* Mr. Adams was a student at Leyden at the same time when the 
late Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse was pursuing there his medical studies. 
Mr. Adams spoke repeatedly of having in his possession a Latin Dic- 
tionary, which Dr. Waterhouse gave him while they resided together at 
Leyden, and which he seemed to value greatly, not only as associated 
with his early studies, but as the memorial of a friendship which com- 
menced in youth, and was only interrupted by death. 



20 

took place in September, 1783. After that import- 
ant event, wliie-h closed the American revolutionaiy 
war, he went over to England with his father, who 
was the first Minister from this country to the court 
of St. James. He was present when George the Third 
announced from the British throne the termination of 
the American war; and witnessed the admission of 
George the Fourth into the House of Lords as Duke 
of Cornwall. 

At the age of eighteen, he returned to his native 
countiy, and, having been admitted to an advanced 
standing in Harvard College, at Cambridge, he grad- 
uated from that institution, as Bachelor of Arts, with 
high honor, in 1787. While in England, his father 
had made inquiries with a view to have him entered 
at Oxford; but, finding that a subscription to the 
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England was 
indispensable, the advantages promised by a resi- 
dence at that celebrated seat of learning were con- 
scientiously relinquished. In the same conversation 
in which Mr. Adams recounted, to the author of this 
Discourse, the principal events of his life, he adverted 
to the false reasoning by which David Hartley en- 
deavored to convince his father of the propriety of 
signing those articles, and of so gaining for his son 
the privileges of an English University. The articles 
in (picstion were, it seems, contained in a separate 
book from that in which the signatures were entered; 



21 

and this trifling circumstance was sufficient to recon- 
cile the mind of such a man as Hartley to subscrihing 
what he could not assent to. 

After graduating at Cambridge, Mr. Adams entered 
the office of the celebrated lawyer, Theophilus Par- 
sons, at that time a resident in Newburyport, and 
subsequently Chief Justice of this Commonwealtli. 
Having devoted the usual term of three years to pre- 
paratory legal studies, he opened an office in Boston, 
where he continued in the practice of law four years, 
from 1790 to 1794. An extract from a letter written 
by him in 1828, will furnish interesting particulars in 
relation to this period of his life. He says : — 

" I had long and lingering anxieties in looking 
forward, doubtful even of my prospects of comfortable 
subsistence, but acquiring more and more the means 
of it, till, in the last of the four years, the business of 
my profession yielded me an income more than equal 
to my expenditures. I had, during three of the four 
years, not the shghtest encouragement or expectation 
of being engaged in public life, and never was more 
surprised than when, about the 1st of June, 1794, I 
received a letter from my father, then Vice-President 
at Philadelphia, informing me, that Mr. Edmund 
Ptandolph, Secretary of State, had called upon him to 
say, that President Washington had resolved to 
nominate me to the Senate as Minister Piesident to 
the Netherlands. From that hour, with two intervals 



22 

each of about one year, I have been devoted to the 
pubhc service. I have gone through a succession of 
pubhc trusts, to tlic greater part of whicli I have been 
appointed when distant thousands of miles from the 
phice where the appointment was made. I say it 
not for vain boasting, but as fact and example — 
which it is my earnest desire that all my children 
should follow. I have never sought public trust. But 
public trust has always sought me. And when in- 
vested with it, I have given my whole soul to the ful- 
fdment of its duties. 

" You may perhaps inquire what it was that recom- 
mended me to the notice of President Washington 
at so early a period of my life. It was the three 
numbers of Marcellus, published in the Boston Cen- 
tinel in April, 1793, and the five numbers of Colum- 
bus, in the same paper, in the winter of 1793 and 
1791:. They involved the discussion of interesting 
questions resorting from the laws of nations, and Avhich, 
at that moment, were of high importance to the system 
of our public policy. My education and the previous 
course of my life had naturally turned my attention 
intensely to the laws of nations ; and there were 
few persons in the country, certainly none of my 
age, so conversant with them, and with the contro- 
versies arising from them, as I had been. My Essays 
were, no doubt, the more satisfactory to President 
Wasliington, because they were devoted to the sup- 



23 

port of his ad ministration, and rather stemmed than 
followed the prevailing current of popular opinion." 

From 1794, when Mr. Adams received, fi'oiii Presi- 
dent Washington, the unsolicited appointment uf Min- 
ister to the Hague, he continued in Europe on puhlic 
business, in various countries, till 1801, being then 
recalled by his father, just before the administration 
«:)f the elder Adams closed. When President Wash- 
ington was about to retire from office, he appointed 
Mr. Adams Minister to Portugal ; but, on his way to 
Lisbon, he received intehigence that his destination 
was altered, and was instructed to repair to Berlin. 
There he continued to reside from November, 1797, to 
April, 1801 ; and, while in that country, negotiated an 
important treaty of commerce with the government of 
Prussia. He also wrote his Letters upon Silesia,'"' the 
fruit of a tour in that province in the latter part of 
the year 1800. These letters were first made pubhc 
in the Port Foho, a periodical magazine published in 
Philadelphia, and were subsequently collected in a 
volume. 

* The original publication was without the consent or knowledge of 
the author, which accounts for the free remarks they contain upon cer- 
tain persons ; a freedom which called forth severe censure from a leading 
English Review. They were, however, highly enough considered to be 
pirated in England, where they were republished, and commended as 
giving " a faithful picture of the interesting province of Silesia, by the 
hand of a gentleman, a scholar, and a statesman." They were also 
translated into French and German. 



24 

It was Juriiig this period of Mr. Adams's career, 
in 1707, that George Washington pronounced him to 

be " THE MOST VALUABLE PUBLIC CHARACTER WE HAVE 
ABROAD, AND THE ABLEST OF ALL OUR DIPLOMATIC 
CORPS." 

Mr. Adams, soon after liis return to this country, 
in 1*^01, became a member of the Massachusetts 
Senate, and, in 1803. from the 4th of March, took his 
seat in the Senate of the United States. This place 
in the national councils he held, till he " became," to 
use his own words, " obnoxious to the Legislature 
of his native State, from the support which he gave 
to parts of Mr. Jefferson's administration;" and, in 
eonsetpience, he resigned his seat in the Senate in 
March, 1808. From 1806 to 1809, he was Boylston 
Professor of llhetoric and Oratory in Harvard Col- 
lege. He was the first to fill the chair of that im- 
portant professorship, and, in the performance of the 
duties assigned to him in that office, delivered lec- 
tures which were much and generally admired, and 
which were afterwards published in two volumes. 

In the summer of 1800, Mr. Adams was nominated 
a second time by President Madison, and confirmed, 
as Minister to llussia, — liis first nomination to that 
embassy having been defeated in the Senate, — and 
was abroad this time eight years. In Ptussia he was 
residing during Napoleon's expedition into that coun- 
try, and witnessed the enthusiasm of that people in 



25 

opposition to the ambitious invader. On one occa- 
sion, particularly, he was present, during that excited 
period, when thirty thousand Piussian peasants marched 
out in a body, after a most affecting leave-taking with 
their friends and relatives, to that contest from which 
only about two thousand of their number ever re- 
turned. 

In 1811, Mr. Adams was selected by Mr. Madison 
to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, occasioned by the death of Judge 
Gushing ; but this appointment he saw reason to 
dechne. 

His diplomatic services, while at the court of St. 
Petersburg, were of the highest value to his coun- 
try. The friendship of such a stable and powerful 
government as that of Russia, which his influence 
did very much to secure, and which has continued 
uninterrupted to the present time, has been greatly 
beneficial to the United States. One of the signal 
results of that friendship was the Emperor Alexan- 
der's offer of mediation, which availed so effectually 
towards terminating the war of 181S, and restoring 
peace between England and this country. 

Mr. Adams was in Paris soon after the return 
of Napoleon from Elba. He had been placed at 
the head of the commissioners who negotiated at 
Ghent, in 1814, the treaty of peace which put an 
end to the second war between Great Britain and the 
4 



26 

United States ; and, soon afler that important trans- 
action, he repaired to London, where he received from 
President Madison his commission as Minister Pleni- 
potentiai7 to the court of St. James. Tn this high 
station, ^Yhich, by a remarkable coincidence, his father 
had occupied under similar circumstances before him, 
he remained till 1817, when he was called home, to 
fill the first place in the cabinet of President Monroe. 
He dischai-ged the duties of Secretary of State during 
the eight successive yeai'S of Mr. Monroe's adminis- 
tration with acknowledged ability, laborious fidelity, 
and eminent success. Under his able and wise man- 
agement of the foreign affairs of the country, the 
claims on Spain were settled, the national territory 
was enlai-ged by the acquisition of Florida, and the 
independence of the South American repubhcs was 
recognized. 

Before his own accession to the Presidency, there- 
fore, there had been confided to Mr. Adams a suc- 
cession of the most honorable and responsible pubhc 
trusts, by eveiy administration, with one exception, 
from tlie period of the organization of the general 
government ; and, during the greater part of the 
administration of Mr. JciTerson, from whom he re- 
ceived no appointment, he was a Senator in Congress 
from his native State. With the splendid qualifica- 
tions that resulted from such a preparatory discipline, 
with the mature and comprehensive wisdom gathered 



27 

on such a wide field of observation, study, and action, 
with a patriotism and integrity which, amidst the 
temptations of official hfe, must have often been so- 
licited, but had never been seduced, he was, in 1825, 
elevated to the head of the nation. 

In what manner he filled that exalted office, impar- 
tial history, to which he ever confidently appealed, 
will record. That he had most determined opposition 
to encounter, is certain. That that opposition suc- 
ceeded in his overthrow is also certain. That his 
mind, which valued highly " the praise of the wise 
and good," was bitterly sensible to the injustice he 
had experienced, his own words wih help us to con- 
ceive. In a letter, written not long after he left the 
Presidency, he says : 

" One of the most pathetic and terrible passages in 
that masterpiece of Shakspeare and of the Drama, is 
that exclamation of the dying Hamlet, — 

' God ! Horatio, what a wounded name, 
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! ' 

I cannot describe to you the thrill with which I first 
read those lines, generahzing the thought as one of 
the melancholy conditions of human life and death ; 
nor say to you how often, in the course of my long 
career, I have applied those lines to myself. My 
name, conduct, and character have been many years 
open to the constant inspection of a large portion of 



28 

tlie civilized world. Of that portion -whose notice 
they have attracted, I am deeply conscious that the 
estimate they have formed of me has been and is 
neither just nor kind." 

But it is equally certain, that, between the time 
when the words just quoted were penned and his death, 
he Hved long enough to have his name vindicated. 
He continued on the stage of action till he could 
put his ear to the confessional of posterity, and hear 
much that must have gratified a mind conscious of 
high aims and patriotic endeavors. 

Having served his term of four years as President, 
and faihng of being reelected, Mr. Adams retired for 
a season from public life. But his retirement was of 
brief duration ; for, in 1831, he once more put on the 
harness, appeared before the country and the world in 
a new field of action, and commenced what, on many 
accounts, may well be regai'ded as the most remark- 
able period of his whole career. He served ten suc- 
cessive years as Bepresentative in Congress from the 
Twelfth Congressional District of Massachusetts, until, 
in 1811, upon a new distribution of pohtical power, 
he was chosen to represent the Eighth District of his 
native Commonwealth. In that capacity he was serv- 
ing, when " death found hiin," to use the words of 
one^'= of his eulogists in the national Senate, "at the 
post of duty; — and wlici'e else could it have found 

* Hon. Mr. Benton, of Missouri. 



29 

him, at any stage of his career, for the fifty years of 
his ihustrious pubHc hfe?" 

He was faithful unto death. 

On Monday, February 21st, in this year of Christ 
18-18, while in his seat, and attending as usual to his 
duties in the House, to which he belonged, lie was 
seized suddenly with paralysis, which left him only 
the consciousness that it was, for him, " the last of 
EAETH." He remained in an insensible state till 
Wednesday, February 23d, at 7 o'clock, afternoon, 
when, in the eighty-first year of his age, the spu-it 
which had so long animated his mortal frame passed 
away. 

" He gave his honors to the world again, 
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." 

" And, to add greater honors to his age 
Than man could give him, he died, fearing God." 

Mr. Adams must be pronounced happy in the cir- 
cumstances of his death, as his course through hfe 
had been marked and glorious. No excesses of a 
profligate youth, no vices of middle life, had shattered 
and hurried to a premature dissolution the body in 
which such an incorruptible spirit resided. Nothing 
in his habits of life interfered with Nature, to whose 
gentle influences it was left to destroy gradually, and 
to restore, in a good old age, to its parent dust, the 
perishable part of our friend. The law of mortality. 



30 

wliich knows no exception among the passing gener- 
ations of our race, was executed in his case with as 
much tenderness and reserve, so to speak, as is ever 
permitted by Providence. The Angel of death came 
to him, a year before his departure, with a summons, 
which seemed to anxious friends to be peremptory 
and final. But we can imagine an expression of 
reluctance in the angel's face, as she turned away and 
kindly said, Not yet. And there is reason to beheve, 
that the year which was thus spai-ed to the venerable 
patriot has been a happy one. It was, in fact, the 
Indian summer of his life. 

He was not left to be an object of compassion to 
friends and admu*ers. No painful contrasts forced 
them to revert in memory to better days. But, with 
a mind unimpaired ; with an interest in life unabated ; 
with a cheerful relish of the same simple pleasures 
that he had ever enjoyed ; with a self-command which 
protracted sickness had not destroyed ; with a heart 
still warm and open to the impressions of nature and 
the universe; with an eye that still ranged with 
delight through the starry spaces, or watched the 
intricate and intervolved orbits of men's passions and 
opinions on the nearer theatre of political, social, and 
religious life upon the eailh ; on the chosen field of 
liis labors ; in the place where his best services to his 
country liad been rendered, and his noblest triumphs 
had been won ; ministered to by the Representatives 



31 

of the nation, from North, South, East, anil West, — 
he passed to his rest. The Angel of deatli, wlicn slie 
came again to execute her office, left him only the 
consciousness that it was " the last of earth ; " then 
drew a veil of oblivion over his faculties, and sat beside 
his couch two days, before the cord that bound him 
to this world was severed. 

An English poet makes the first man ask of the 
angel, who is supposed to foreshow the future condi- 
tion and destiny of his race, with regai'd to death, — 

Adam. *' Is there no smooth descent? no painless way 
Of kindly mixing with our native clay 1 ' ' 

And the angel is represented as replying, — 

Raphael. " There is : but rarely shall that path be trod, 

Which, without horror, leads to death's abode. 
Some few, by temperance taught, approaching slow, 
To distant fate by easy journeys go ; 
Gently they lay them down, as evening sheep 
On their own woolly fleeces softly sleep." 

It pleased Almighty God that our departed friend and 
fellow- Christian should be one of the favored few. 

" Of no distemper, of no blast he died, 
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long." 

I shall not presume, on this occasion, to judge of 
the character of Mr. Adams, or to settle his claims as 
a scholar, a statesman, or a philosopher. I leave that 
task to others more competent for the office. The 



32 

same piiuciple wliich governs in criminal trials should 
also he adopted in judging of merit, absolute or rela- 
tive, in any of the great departments of theoretical or 
practical life. Let a man he tried by his peers. To 
his peers, if they can be found, I leave the departed. 
The remainder of the discourse shall be devoted to 
the humbler Avork of pointing out certain obvious 
features in his life, and of drawing from that life 
some of the Christian lessons which it is so well 
adapted to inculcate and enforce. 

And I think no one will dissent from the statement 
that the life which has recently been closed was an 
eminently useful life. Mr. Adams has not lived for 
himself. His great powers ; his affluent resources ; 
his abundant learning ; his memory, which held with 
a tenacious grasp whatever had once passed into the 
treasury of his mind ; his commanding influence, — be- 
yond, probably, what any individual among his con- 
temporary countrymen has ever exercised, — over pubhc 
opinion ; his dreaded controversial skill, which, like 
the mill-stone in Scripture, was fatal alike to those on 
whom it fell, and to those who fell upon it ; the numer- 
ous offices which he has filled, from the time when, as 
a lad, he went to St. Petersburg as private Secretaiy 
to the ^Minister to that court, through more than fifty 
years of public service abroad and at home, down to 
the very moment of his death; — all these gifts, 
native and acquired, have been used by him to pro- 



33 

mote the welfare of his country and of manldnd. He 
has been, what the Scripture declai'cs the good magis- 
trate to be, " a minister of God for good" to his native 
land. In peace and in war ; in foreign courts contend- 
ing against the insolence of power, and threading the 
labyrinth of political intrigue; in forming treaties 
upon which the fortunes and lives of thousands de- 
pended ; in adjusting territorial boundaries, and nego- 
tiating for an extension of our national domain; in 
guiding the ship of state, often amidst shoals and 
rocks and with a crew half disposed to mutiny; in 
maturing and carrying into execution, so far as he 
was allowed to do it, a wise prospective national pol- 
icy ; in efforts to promote the cause of education, of 
science, of freedom, of morals, of rehgion ; — he has 
lived for others; he has laid upon the altar of his 
country and his God his exalted talents. And this 
trait in his character is to be in a great measure 
traced to the counsels of that admirable mother, that 
more than Roman, that Christian matron, who 
stamped upon his impressible mind the image of her 
own virtues, and who charged him, from a child, to 
consecrate his faculties to his country and to his 
Creator. 

And it adds to our estimate of his usefulness, that 
he united, which is rarely done, a life of contempla- 
tion and a life of action. He studied principles in 
the abstract, as they are collected, systematized and 

5 



34 

explained in books ; and lie was also perfectly familiar 
with the world's business. He was profound in the 
one, and skilful, sagacious, methodical, in the other. 
He had investigated that ideal truth, which philoso- 
phers in every age have sought for in their reasonings 
or in their dreams ; and he was acquainted too with 
ti-uth, as it presents itself to the practical man, who 
is called to do a portion of the work of life, not in 
the best way he can imagine it might and should be 
done, but in the only way it can be done amidst the 
passions of society. 

In this paiiicular Mr. Adams illustrated, in his own 
character, the remark of Lord Bacon, that " knowl- 
edge is never so dignified and exalted, as when con- 
templation and action are nearly and strongly con- 
joined together." The man of mere learning, who 
employs his days and nights in amassing the ideas of 
others, may overload his own intellect, and bring 
nothing to pass. His habit of abstract study, of gen- 
erahzation, removes him out of the real world, makes 
him a companion of shadows, bhnds him to the actual 
exigencies of life, and unfits him for a useful, ener- 
getic, and successful exercise and application of his 
powers. Mr. Adams was not encumbered by any 
such useless idealism, although a remarkably leai*ned 
man. He had been educated not in the closet alone, 
but among men, and in the midst of affairs. He 
went into the world with book in hand, and was thus 



35 

able to correct his speculations by observation and 
experience. To borrow the words of one* who offered, 
on the floor of Congress, a most eloquent tribute to 
his memory, " his was not the dreamy life of the 
schools ; but he leaped into the arena of activity, to 
run a career of glorious emulation with the gifted 
spirits of the earth." 

But if it is true that Mr. Adams was not a mere man 
of learning, it is equally true and worthy of notice, 
that he was not a mere man of action and official 
routine. He did not reduce life to a mechanical per- 
formance of a certain amount of hand-work. It is a 
part of his glory that he carried principles, and espe- 
cially moral principles, into public life. He did not 
adopt the mischievous maxim, that, " in politics, all 
is fail'." He did not allow himself to do whatever 
popular sentiment — often quite lax in regard to men's 
public conduct — will permit or wink at. His morality 
was not the morality of expediency. He was not 
content with institutions and usages merely because 
they were established. He would bring them all to 
the standard of Christian right, of justice, of absolute 
truth, of God's law. To him belongs the high dis- 
tinction of a Christian statesman. 

Who, it may safely be demanded, among the pubhc 
men of our country and times, so worthy to be held 
up as a model before the youth of the land ? Shall 

* Hon. Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina. 



36 

we go back to buried ages and to Pagan history, in 
seai'ch of an ideal model of the true statesman, when 
we have had among us one, upon whom Death has 
but just laid liis icy hand, greater, purer, better than 
Pagan antiquity can boast ? Mr. Adams's character 
is no exotic; it is the genuine growth and product 
of the North American soil, composed of elements 
indigenous to that soil, blending in one harmonious 
and glorious whole those virtues which can alone give 
sti'ength, pennanence, grace, to the Republic. Let 
young America be fashioned and moulded by this 
noble pattern. Let the fresh generation that is 
coming on to serve their countiy, to occupy her high 
posts of honor, to go on her errands to other lands, 
or to execute her laws at home, study his character, 
emulate his pure fame, adopt his principles, drink in, 
from his fulness, the spirit of truth, liberty and vktue, 
which was the breath of his life. Then will the Re- 
public be safe. Then shall our country fulfil the high 
and glorious destiny to which an almighty Providence 
invites her. 

It is, above all, satisfactory to be assured that our 
venerated friend was, from personal study and from 
sincere conviction, a Christian behever. We in this 
place rejoice to think of him as a brother in the 
Lord. Mr. Adams was eminently a religious man. 
The best elements of New England Puritanism were 
blended in his nature, while, at the same time, the 



37 

harshness of Puritanism was softened, and its nar- 
rowness was enlarged and hbcrahzed. His constant 
attendance upon pubhc worship, with which all are 
familiar; his exemplary observance of the Christian 
Sabbath, and his readiness to join with others in 
efforts to promote a better general observance of the 
day, by all classes in the community ; his diligent 
daily study of, and familiar acquaintance with, the 
Holy Scriptures ; his deep reverence for sacred things ; 
his high estimate of faith as the basis of the Chris- 
tian life ; his sense of the efficacy of prayer ; his 
exalted idea of the person, mission, and offices of the 
Savior ; his conviction of the need of spiritual influ- 
ences ; — all bear testimony to the religious chai'acter 
of his mind. 

I hope I do not offend the dead when I say, that 
my own mind has never been more solemnly im- 
pressed than when, on a visit to him to inquire for 
the health of one of his family, he requested me to 
go with him to his private room, and unite in prayer. 
The memory of that scene, as we bowed together in 
supplication, in behalf of the child then dying under 
his roof, will, I am sure, never be effaced from my 
mind, but will perpetuate the conviction, which was 
then, if not created, strengthened, of the simple, 
genuine piety of the man. 

In 1826, while he was President of the United 
States, Mr. Adams united himself to this Church, to 



38 

which his ancestors, from the first settlement of the 
country, had, in their day and generation, belonged; 
and to his death, he was a true friend of this religious 
society, and a consistent, exemplai-y member of our 
Christian communion. Eighty-one yeai'S have elapsed 
since he was brought, an unconscious infant, to the 
font of this ancient church, to be baptized by a pastor 
of former days. Once again we see him brought 
hither, but alas ! more unconscious still, before he shall 
be gathered to his fathers. He has passed within 
the veil. His spirit has returned to God who gave 
it. To use his own beautiful words, when speaking 
of himself in connection with a venerable contem- 
porai-y" still among the living, " Like birds of passage, 
he has winged his flight to a more genial clime." 

"We shall miss him, we know not yet how much. 
But his memory remains with us, — that we will 
cherish. His noble and useful hfe remains, — that 
we will study. His Christian example survives, — 
that we will endeavor to imitate. 

I cannot bring to a close the remarks suggested 
by this occasion, ^nthout claiming the privilege, and 
performing the duty, of which this seems to be the 
fitting time, if only the organ of its performance were 
fit also, of addressing a few words to the large Com- 
mittee, who have been charged, by the Chamber to 

• Hon. Albert Gallatin. 



39 

which the veuerated dead belonged, to accompany his 
remains to the place of interment. 

Gentlemen, Refresentatives of the Nation, 
your mission has been a mournful, and yet a glorious 
one. And I venture to say that in no stage of your 
progress to this place, where, at the grave of Adams, 
your mission closes, have you met with aught but the 
most accordant sympathy. You bring us our friend, 
not as we could have wished he should retura to the 
scenes so famihar and dear to his heart. But the 
all-wise Providence of Heaven has ordained it to be 
thus ; and we will not murmiu' against God. The 
Savior's words to his chief apostle were, " When thou 
wast young, thou gu'dedst thyself, and walkedst 
whither thou wouldest ; but when thou shalt be old, 
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
wouldest not." These sadly prophetic words of the 
Blessed One, although originally intended to " signify 
what manner of death his apostle should die," and 
therefore not, in that primary sense, applicable to him 
who lies insensible before us, are yet, when used in a 
general sense, strikingly descriptive of the contrast 
between strong and self-sustained youth, and the 
utter helplessness to which the strongest are sure to 
be reduced at last. 

There is a sacredness attached. Gentlemen, by the 
imagination, to your errand. You come, like Joseph 
and his brethren, the twelve tribes of Israel, to bury 



40 

one of the Fathers of the land in the grave which he 
had prepared for himself, among his own people, in 
this north countr}'. We receive, with profound sen- 
sibility, these sacred relics from your hands. We 
thank you for your labor of love. In the name, first 
and foremost, of the httle band of Christian brothers 
and sisters to whom this depai'ted sei^vant of the Re- 
public was united in full Church Communion, ac- 
cording to the usages of our Congregational Churches ; 
in the name of the religious Society of which our 
friend was a member, and with whom he as constantly 
and punctually worshipped, in the seat now vacant, 
as you know his attendance to have been punctual 
and constant in the House to which you belong ; in 
the name of the inhabitants of this town, the place 
of his nativity ; of his immediate constituents, many 
of whom are ai'ound you ; of the citizens of his own 
State of Massachusetts, represented, on this occasion, 
not only by the Executive and Legislative branches 
of her government, but by this vast throng of her 
people ; — I presume to speak, and beg you to accept, 
through even so humble an instrument, the gratitude 
which all hearts feel, for the love and respect which 
you have manifested for one so dear and venerable to 
us all. From each State and Territoiy of our glorious 
Union, you have gathered here on this occasion, as 
if to fulfd, to the letter, the language of one* with 

• Hon. Mr. McDowell, of Virginia. 



41 

whom you are associated in public duties. " It is not 
for Massachusetts to mourn alone. Her sister com- 
monwealths gather to her side in this hour of her 
affliction, and, intertwining their arms with hers, they 
bend together over the bier of her illustrious son." 

Your hearts, Gentlemen, will not, I am sure, fail to 
be open to the influences which this place, with all 
its local associations, is suited to convey. Within a 
short distance from you is the spot where John Han- 
cock, the son of a former minister of this Congrega- 
tional Church, first saw the hght. In the neighbor- 
ing gTave-yard, where you are soon to leave your pre- 
cious charge, may be seen the tomb and monument 
of Josiah Quincy, Jr., who lived only long enough to 
witness the brealdng dawn of our nation's day. In 
the pews where you sit, you see, in the book used by 
us in our Christian devotions, hymns composed by 
our departed fellow-Christian. He who had occupied 
the throne of the people was, like the Hebrew mon- 
arch, also a Psalmist in our Israel. About a mile 
distant, to the south, from the place where we ai'e 
assembled, may be seen two simple and modest build- 
ings, standing in near vicinity, side by side, in one of 
which John Adams and in the other John Quincy 
Adams, two Presidents of the United States, were 
born. As you entered this Temple, you passed over 
the sleeping dust of the parents of him whom you 
have come to lay by their side. To the east, at a 
6 



42 

little distance, is the ridge, familiai'ly called Mount 
"Wollaston, from the shore beyond which the elder 
Adams, then in the maturity of life, with his son, a 
lad of eleven years, embarked on his first mission, to 
solicit foreign aid in estabhshing the independence of 
our country. 

Seventy years have elapsed since that point of 
time. But what miracles of beneficent and glorious 
social and pohtical change have been wrought in that 
interval ! When the friend, whom we are assembled 
to buiy, embai-ked with his father from Mount Wol- 
laston, what was his country? Had he a country? 
The inscription on this coffin-lid, so simple, so com- 
prehensive, answers the questions. He was " born 
an inhabitant of Massachusetts." How is it now? 
" He died a citizen of the United States." What a 
creation has been effected in that interval of seventy 
yeai's ! What an empire has the departed Patriot 
witnessed, springing into hfe, and " rejoicing like a 
strong man to run a race ! " 

When the career of the illustrious dead commenced, 
what interest, I pray you, had the inhabitants of this 
region in your mighty Mississippi, which now rolls 
its majestic tide between States ? It belonged then 
to the countrymen of de Soto and Cortes. The 
beautiful Ohio was but the pathway for Canadian 
boatmen on their passage to the Gulf. No Anglo- 
Saxon settlement had as yet been made on the banks 



43 

of the Ouisconsin. The florid regions of our extreme 
South were almost as unknown and romantic a ter- 
ritory, as when Juan Ponce de Leon sought there for 
the fountain that was to restore to his veteran hmbs 
the freshness and vigor of youth. The vast prairies 
of the West, where towns and cities may now be 
seen, were then but wildernesses of verdure, the 
parks of Nature, where the red nobles of the land 
hunted their game. The shores of the Pacific, which 
we have recently been surveying with our battle- 
ships and war-parties, and where we are now busy 
drawing the line of our Western frontier, were 
almost as much a terra incognita to the American 
colonists as the whole Western Continent was to 
Columbus before his discover}\ Only thirteen colo- 
nies, scattered along this Atlantic coast, comprised 
the territory possessed by Englishmen. What a mar- 
vellous change to have been effected in the course of 
a single life ! When we attempt to conceive of what 
we know to have been accomplished, it seems as if 
the Muse of history had resigned her office to the 
Muse of poetry. Seventy years ago, the youth de- 
parts from these shores in the cause of a countiy 
which had yet hai'dly a name to live among the na- 
tions of the earth. And to-day you come hither, the 
representatives of twenty-nine Commonwealths, be- 
longing to an Empire Union, to convey the remains 
of that boy without a country to his tomb in the 



44 

midst of twenty millions of freemen. Where, in his- 
tory, can you fmd so glorious a destiny assigned to a 
single life ? Where, in the range of fiction, a more 
splendid series of mai-vels, brought within the expe- 
rience of imaginary heroes ? 

You will not fail, Gentlemen, to cai'ry with you 
to your distant homes, the lessons which this occa- 
sion, with its associated thoughts, however poorly 
expressed by me, must teach. Will you allow me, in 
parting, to say, that the chief lesson is a rehgious 
one, — " Be thou faithful unto death ; and I will give 
thee a crown of hfe." 

The duties of this occasion are neai^ly completed. 
W^hen one more hymn shall have been chanted, let 
us rise up, and take these remains of the patriai'ch, 
and bury him with his fathers. There may he rest 
in peace till the resurrection at the last day. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 

AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AmEN. 



45 



APPENDIX. 



PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING IN QUINCY. 

At a meeting of the citizens of the town of Quincy, holden February 
28, 1848, for the purpose of adopting such measures as might be 
deemed proper to testify their respect to the memory of their late dis- 
tinguished townsman, the Honorable John Quincy Adams : — 

The meeting was organized by the choice of Hon. Thomas 
Greenleaf as Chairman, and Israel W. Munroe as Secretary. 

A Committee was chosen, consisting of Hon. Thomas Green- 
leaf, Noah Curtis, Esq., and the Selectmen, — namely, Daniel 
Baxter, B. B. Newcomb, and Seth Spear, — to prepare Re- 
solves for the consideration of the meeting, who subsequently 
reported the following Resolutions, wliich were unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas, it has pleased Divine Providence to remove from 
this life the Hon. John Quincy Adams, while engaged in the 
discharge of his duties as a Representative in the Congress 
of the United States from the Eighth Congressional District 
of Massachusetts, — 

Therefore, Resolved, That the inhabitants of the town of 
Quincy, in common with the whole country, mourn the loss of 
one of the ablest, wisest, and most vu'tuous statesmen of mod- 



46 

ern times ; a patriot, -who has stood by his country in peace 
and in war, and who has guarded her interests at home and 
abroad ; a scholar of the most varied attainments ; an orator 
of surpassing eloquence ; a friend and advocate of truth, 
freedom, and justice ; a man of unbending integrity in public 
and private life ; and, above all, a Christian, who, in the 
greatest press of official cares, never forgot or omitted his 
duties to God. 

Resolved^ Tliat, in reviewing Mr. Adams's long career, we 
are specially impressed by the eminent usefulness of his life, 
and by the vast amount of service which he has rendered to 
his country and to the world ; and that we regard this as a 
better title to a " perpetual memory " than the numerous 
offices which he so ably filled, or the honors so freely bestowed 
upon him by his admiring countrymen. 

Resolved^ That while, as Americans, we unite -with all por- 
tions of the coimtry in honoring the memory of one who 
consecrated his great powers to the service of the whole 
country, we esteem it a privilege to have been allowed, as his 
constituents, his fellow-townsmen and liis neighbors, to stand 
in close relations to him ; and that we take a just pride, as 
inhabitants of his native place, in having it said, m the lan- 
guage of the Scriptures, that " this man was bom there." 

Resolved^ That since it is not permitted us to welcome back 
the living patriot to scenes famihar and dear to him, there- 
fore, a committee of twenty be appointed, whose duty it shall 
be, in behalf of the inhabitants of this to^vn, to receive, 
whenever they shall arrive here, the remains of our vener- 
ated fellow-townsman, and to make all suitable arrangements, 
in deference to the wishes of the bereaved family, for their 
interment. 



47 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions bs immediately 
transmitted to the family of the deceased ex-President Adams, 
with assurances of the most respectful sympathy for the loss 
they have sustained. 

The following gentlemen compose the Committee appointed 
to make all suitable arrangements for attending the funeral, 

viz. : 

Thomas Greenleaf, Noah Curtis, Joslah Brigham, George 
W. Beale, James Newcomb, Samuel A. Davis, William S. 
Morton, Lemuel Brackctt, George Baxter, John Savil, Henry 
Wood, Lysander Richards, William B. Duggan, Lewis Bass, 
Jolui T. BurrUl, Daniel Baxter, Bryant B. Newcomb, Seth 
Spear, Orange Clark, Josiah Bass. 

Voted, That the proceedings of this meetmg be entered in 
the Town Records, and also pubUshed in the newspapers. 

Thomas Greenleaf, Chairman. 

Israel W. Munroe, Secretary. 



rUNEKAL CEREMONIES. 

On Saturday, March 11th, the remains of Ex-President 
Adams were taken, in the forenoon, from Faneull Hall, and 
conveyed to the Depot, in Boston, of the Old Colony Rail- 
road. 

The Mayor of the city of Boston, Hon, Josiah Quincy, Jr., 
then formally consigned the body to the care of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements of the town of Quincy, who were 
waiting to receive it. On the arrival of the train that con- 
veyed the body at the Depot in Quincy, a national salute was 
fired from President's Hill, so called from its havmg belonged 



48 



to two Presidents of the United States. The body was 
carried from the Depot to the venerable mansion of Mr. 
Adams, where it remained until the procession to the church 



was formed in the following order : 



DIVISION I. 



Mihtary Escort. 

Aids. Cliief Marshal, John L. Dimmock. Aids. 

Citizens of Quincy. 

Marshal. Officiating Clergyman. Marshal. 

Committee of Arrangements. ] 

Marshals. - Pall Bearers. CORPSE. Pall Bearers, r Marshals. 

Family and Relatives. ) 

^ , , (Congressional Committee of the House] ,, , , 
( of Representatives. j 



DI\^SION II. 






Marshal. 



Marshals. 



Marshals. 



Marshals. 



Marshal. 



Sheriff of the County of Norfolk. 

Governor and Suite. [ 

Lt. Governor and Executive Council. [ 

Secretary of State and Treasurer, j 

President of the Senate and Speaker] 

of the House of Representatives. ]- Marshals. 

Members of the Senate. j 

Members of House of Representatives.] 

Members and past JSIembers of ^ Marshals. 
[ Congress. ) 

I Judges and other Officers of United ^ 
States and State Courts. 
President and other Officers of Harvard [ 
University. 



- Marshals. 



j 



DIVISION III. 

Marshal. Municipal Officers of Quincy. Marshal. 
Marshals, i^^'"^^''' "^ ^^' ^^''P '^ ^^"^^ ^^l Marshals. 



yicmity. 



) 



49 



Officers of the Army and Navy, and' 

Marshals. -1 United States Civil Officers. !- Marshals. 

Officers of the Massachusetts Militia. 

Corporation of the City of Boston. 

Corporation of the City of Roxbury. 



Marshals. - 



Delegates of the several Towns in the 
Eighth Congressional District. 



-Marshals. 



[Societies of which the Deceased Avas a| 
Marshals. - Member. - Marshals. 

[ Strangers and Citizens generally. 

The Committee, charged by Congress to accompany the 
remains of their late associate to the place of interment, and 
who were present in Quincy on the day of the funeral, were 
as follows : 

Hon. Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, Cliairman. 
" Mr. Hammons, " Maine. 

" New Hampshire. 



u 



Mr. Wilson, 
" Mr. Collamer, 
Mr. Ashmun, 
Mr. Thurston, 
Mr. Rockwell, 
Mr. Newell, 
Mr. Mcllvaine, 
" Mr. Houston, 
" Mr. Ligon, 
" Mr. Meade, 



u 
u 
u 
ii 
ii 



" Vermont. 

" Massachusetts. 

" Rhode Island. 

" Cormecticut. 

" New Jersey. 

" Pennsylvania. 

" Delaware. 

" Maryland. 

" Virginia. 



u 



Mr. Barringcr, " North Carolma. 

" Mr. Holmes, " South Carolina. 

Mr. Lumpkin, " Georgia. 

Mr. Hilliard, " Alabama. 

Mr. Brown, " Mississippi. 
7 



50 



Hon. Mr. Morse, 


of 


Louisiana. 




' Mr. Edwards, 




Ohio. 




' Mr. French, 




Kentucky. 




' Mr. Gentry, 




Tennessee. 




' Mr. Smith, 




Indiana. 




' ;Mr. Wcntworth, 




Illinois. 




' Mr. Phelps, 




Missouri. 




' Mr. Johnson, 




Arkansas. 




' Mr. Bingham, 




Michigan. 




' Mr. Cabell, 




Florida. 




' Mr. Kaufman, 




Texas. 




' Mr. Thompson, 




Iowa. 




' Mr. Tweedy, 




Wisconsin Territory 



The Mayor of Washington, Mr. Seaton, also was present, 
and represented the District of Columbia. On the arrival of 
the procession at the church, the Services were conducted in 



the following order 



I. Voluntary on the Organ. 



II. Hymn. J. Shirley, altered. [From Christian Psalter. 

1 The glories of our birth and state 

Are shadows, not substantial things ; 
There is no armor against fate ; 
Death lays his icy hands on kings. 

2 Princes and magistrates must fall. 

And in the dust be equal made. 
The high and mighty with the small, 

Sceptre and crown with scythe and spade. 



51 

3 The garlands wither on your brow ; 

Then boast no more your mighty deeds ; 
Upon death's purple altar now 

See where the victor victim bleeds ! 

4 All heads must come to the cold tomb : 

Only the actions of the just 
Preserve in death a rich perfume, 
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. 

III. Selections from the Scriptures. 

IV. Prayer. 

Almighty God, and most merciful Father — we rejoice that 
in Thee we have a sure refuge in every time of trouble and 
sorrow. And that we can look through the clouds that sur- 
round us in this vale of tears, and from the shadow of death 
even, and behold thy face smiling upon us with Parental Love. 
Thou doest thy whole pleasure in the armies of heaven, and 
among the inliabitants of the earth ; and none can stay thy 
hand, or say unto thee, what doest Thou ? We would not 
stay Thy hand, God, if we could ; for Ave know that it is 
ever lifted and outstretched for oui- good. Nor would we 
question the rectitude and mercifulness of Thy appointments ; 
for we are assured that all that takes place is ordered for 
our good. 

We desire to be sensible, on this solemn occasion, how vain 
a thing our life on the earth is. Surely man that is born of 
a woman is of a few days and full of trouble. He cometh 
forth as a flower, and is cut down ; he fleeth also as a shadow, 
and continueth not. Thou takest away one in the morning of 



52 

life, -vyIicu lus leaf is green, and his promise is great. Thou 
removest another in the midst of his days and usefulness. And 
thou sparest another still to a good old age, so that he cometh 
unto his grave, Uke a shock of corn, fully ripe and in his 
season. And seeing we are surrounded by these evidences of 
our frailty and mortality, wherein, God, is our hope ? Our 
hope is in Thee, who changest not. One generation of our 
feeble race passeth away, and another generation cometh. 
But Thou art the same from everlastmg to everlasting. We 
rejoice and thank Thee, merciful God, that in the Gospel of 
Jesus Chi-ist we have a sure ground of confidence and hope. 
"We thank Thee that thou hast sent on earth the Son of Thy 
love, to unfold mito us the prmciples of the Divine law ; to 
bear in his own person our infii-mities and sorrows ; to teach 
us how to live and how to die ; and to open to us, by liis death 
and resurrection, the door of an everlasting life beyond the 
grave. We know and are assured by him, that although this 
earthly house in which we now dwell, may decay and perish 
in the dust, we have a buildmg of God, an house not made 
^nth hands, eternal m the heavens. We would comfort one 
another's hearts, on this occasion, with these precious hopes 
and promises. 

We acknowledge, heavenly Father, the dispensation of thy 
Providence, wliich has called us together at this time. It 
hath pleased thee, God, -witli whom arc the issues of life and 
death, to remove from life, one who has long stood in the high 
places of the land, a comisellor and leader mito this people. 
Thou hast changed his countenance. His body, which was 
perishable, is now about to be committed to the gromid ; and 
lus immortal spirit has already returned unto God who gave it. 
We trust that he has been accepted through the mercy of 



53 

that Gospel upon which he rehed ; and that his disembodied 
spirit has ah-eady heard the approving sentence, — well done, 
good and faithful servant ; enter into the joy of thy Lord. 
We thank God, that thy messenger of death found him, and 
that the last of earth of which he was conscious was spent, in 
the midst of the discharge of his duties. 

Almighty God, from Avhom cometh all consolation, we sup- 
plicate thy blessing upon those whose hearts have been most 
nearly touched and affected by this Providence ; upon her, 
from whom Thou hast removed her chosen companion through 
the trials of many years ; upon those who looked up to thy 
departed servant with filial tenderness and veneration ; and 
upon all who were connected with him by the ties of kindred 
and affection. Will the Lord be gracious unto them ? Will 
the Lord lift upon them the light of his countenance, and 
give them that peace Avhich the world cannot give, and which 
the world cannot take away ! 

Almighty Father, whose gracious design it is that all events 
shall be improved by thy children for their instruction, Ave be- 
seech thee to sanctify this Providence to fhis ancient Church 
of Christ, Avith which thy departed servant was so long con- 
nected in the bonds of Christian fellowship ; to the rehgious 
Society A\dth Avhom he so many years worshipped the God of 
his fathers ; to his neisrhbors and friends the inhabitants of 
this town, the place of his nativity ; to his constituents, whose 
interests he so faithfully served ; to the State wliich rejoiced 
to number him among her sons ; and to the associated Com- 
mouAvealths, represented on this occasion, which acknowledged 
and honored him as a leader of this whole people, in the days 
that are gone. And grant, that the lessons of truth, of in- 
tegrity, of patriotism, of Christian fidelity, which were taught 



54 

in his life and in his death, may be deeply impressed upon all 
hearts. 

Almighty Father, who dost employ, in thy Providence, fit 
agents to execute the work which it is thy pleasure should be 
done in the world, — raise up, we beseech thee, and send forth, 
those who shall fill the places of the great and good who are 
passing from the midst of us, and grant that they may pros- 
per in the work Avhercunto they are sent. 

We commend to thee. Almighty God, our beloved country. 
Rule in the hearts of our rulers. Give unto them that wis- 
dom which is profitable to direct, and inspire them with that 
fear of thee which casteth out all other fear. 

We beseech thee, God, to pardon our sins, and to 
accept us in our devotions, for the sake of thy Infinite mercy 
in Christ. 

And now that we are about to commit these remains to the 
ground, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes, we desire to do it, 
with a firm faith in the resurrection of the dead by Jesus 
Christ, and in the confident assurance that neither death nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, 
will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name we come unto Thee, 
and through him, offer unto Thee everlasting praises. Amex. 

V. Hymn. John Q. Adams. [From Christian Psalter. 

1 Lord of all worlds, let thanks and praise 
To thee forever fill my soul ; 
With blessings thou hast croAvned my days, — 
My heart, my head, my hand control : 



55 

0, let no vain presumption rise, 
No impious murmur in mj heart, 

To crave the boon thy will denies, 
Or shrink from ill thy hands impart. 

2 Thy cliild am I, and not an hour, 

Revolving in the orbs above. 
But brings some token of thy power, 

But brings some token of thy love : 
And shall this bosom dare repine, 

In darkness dare deny the dawn. 
Or spurn the treasures of the mine, 

Because one diamond is withdrawn ? 

3 The fool denies, the fool alone, 

Thy bemg, Lord, and boundless might, 
Denies the firmament, thy throne. 

Denies the sun's meridian fight ; 
Denies the fasliion of Ms frame. 

The voice he hears, the breath he draws ; 
idiot atheist ! to proclaim 

Eifects unnumbered without cause ! 

4 Matter and mind, mysterious one. 

Are man's for threescore years and ten ; 
Where, ere the thread of fife was spun ? 

Wliere, when reduced to dust again ? 
All-seemg God, the doubt suppress ; 

The doubt thou only canst refieve ; 
My soul thy Sa\ior-Son shafi bless. 

Fly to thy gospel, and befieve. 



66 

VI. Discourse. 

VII. Funeral Anthem. 
" Vital spark of heavenly flame." 

Immediately after the services in the church were con- 
cluded, the procession Avas re-formed, and proceeded to the 
burying-ground, where the body was laid in the family tomb. 



MONUMENTS IN HONOR OF MK. ADAMS S ANCESTORS. 

(p. 15.) 

In the burying-ground in Quincy are four Monuments, 
erected by President John Adams in honor of his ancestors. 
They are solid, simple structures of granite, bearing the fol- 
lowing inscriptions : 

I. 

IN MEMORY OF 

HENRY ADAMS, 

Who took his flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire, in Eng- 
land, and alighted with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the 
sons returned to England ; and after taking time to explore the Country, 
four removed to Medfield and the neighboring towns ; two to Chelms- 
ford. One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, 
who was an original proprietor in the Township of Braintree, incorpo- 
rated in the year 1G39. 

This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great- 
great-grandson, from a veneration of the piety, humility, simplicity, pru- 
dence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry and perseverance of his 
ancestors, in hopes of recommending an imitation of their virtues to 
their posterity. 



57 



II. 

Dedicated 

to the memory of 

JOSEPH ADAMS, Senior, 

who died December 6, 1694, 

and of ABIGAIL, his wife, 

whose first name was 

Baxter, who died August 27, 

1692, by a great-grandson, 

in 1817. 



III. 

In memory of 

JOSEPH ADAMS, son of 

Joseph, senior, and grandson of 

Henry ; and of HANNAH his wife, 

whose maiden name was 

Bass, a daughter of 

Thomas Bass and Ruth Alden ; 

parents of John Adams, 

and grand-parents 

of the lawyer 

JOHN ADAMS, 

Erected December, 1823. 



IV. 

Sacred 

to the memory of 

MR. JOHN ADAMS, 

who died 

May 25, A. D. 1761, 

aged 70, 

and 

of SUSANNA, his Consort, 

born Boylston, 

who died April 17, A. D. 1797, 

aged 88. 



The sweet remembrance of the just 
Shall flourish when they sleep in dust. 



8 



58 



MR. ADAMS S ADMINISTRATION. 

(p. 27.) 

In a letter to a friend, under date of February 2, 1837, 
Mr. Adams, alluding to the time -when he held the office of 
President of the United States, says : 

" The great effort of my administration was to mature into 
a permanent and regular system the application of all the 
superfluous revenue of the Union to internal improvement, — 
improvement wliich, at this day, would have afforded high 
wages and constant employment to hundreds of thousands of 
laborers, and in wliich every dollar expended would have re- 
paid itself fourfold in the enhanced value of the pubHc lands. 
With tliis system, in ten years from this day, the surface of 
the whole Union would have been checkered over with rail- 
roads and canals. It may still be done, half a century later, 
and with the hmpmg gait of State legislation and private ad- 
ture. I would have done it in the administration of the 
affairs of the nation. I had laid the foundation of it all by a 
resolution offered to the Senate of the United States, in 1806, 
and adopted by that body uyider another'' s name, (the journ- 
als of the senate are my vouchers.) It called forth the first 
report of Albert Gallatin, then secretary of the treasuiy, up- 
on mtenial improvement." 



TRAIT IN MR. ADAMS S CHARACTER, 
(p. 33.) 

One remarkable quality in Mr. Adams, to which reference 
has been made in the discourse, was the simplicity of his 
character. This was apparent in his personal appearance, 
his mamicrs. Ids mode of intercourse with his fellow-men, his 



59 

habits of life, as well as in his public and official conduct. 
He was entirely accessible to any who sought his society, 
even the humblest. He exacted nothing on account of the 
stations he had filled. He gave those who difiered from him 
in conversation or public debate a fair chance to make the 
best of their opinions. At St. Petersburg and at London, 
instead of attempting a style of living m imitation of that 
which prevailed among the representatives of aristocratic gov- 
ernments, he was content to appear, as he was, the represent- 
ative of a plain republic. Of mere official consequence he 
seemed to think nothmg. He did not find, in the stations he 
had filled, a reason for declining any services that liis fellow- 
citizens or fellow-Christians might call him to perform. An 
instance of tliis is seen in his wiUingness to act as represent- 
ative of a small fraction of the people, after having been the 
acknowledged and honored head and leader of the whole peo- 
ple ; a position which some persons among us thought he 
ought not to have allowed himself to be placed in. But he 
had his own ideas of what constitutes true digriity. 

Some few years since, Mr. Adams was invited, by the 
school committee of the town of Quincy, to accompany them 
in their round of visits to the several district schools in the 
town. He comphed very readily i gave his attention, duiing 
a session of three houi's in the forenoon and three in the af- 
ternoon of each day, to the lessons of the pupils ; and en- 
tered into the humble work before him with as much interest, 
and addi-essed the schools with as much animation of manner, 
as he would have evinced in pohtical discussions, or m man- 
agmg the afiairs of a nation. Lord Bacon has said that " he 
who cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as disperse 
and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty." This mark of true 
greatness was not wanting in Mr. Adams. 



60 



CHRISTIAN PSALTER. 

(p. 41.) 

In 1841, when the author of this Discourse was preparing 
a new Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the use of the Re- 
ligious Society to which he ministers, Mr. Adams was kind 
enough to place in his hands, for such use as he might choose 
to make of it, an entire metrical version of the Psalms, to- 
gether with a few other pieces of devotional poetry. From 
these compositions twenty-two pieces were selected, and are 
contained ui the book pubhshed luider the name of The 
Christian Psalter. 



REMAINS OF PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS. 

(p. 41.) 

The remains of President John Adams, and of Abigail, his 
Avife, he entombed under the portico of the Granite Church, 
in which the Fii-st Congregational Society in Quincy worship. 
In a letter addressed in 1826, by Mr. J. Q. Adams to Thom- 
as Greenleaf and others, supervisors of the temple and school 
fund, given by John Adams to the tovm. of Quincy, is this 
proposal : "I propose that when the Congregational Society 
in this town shall determine to commence the erection of the 
temple, they should adopt a resolution authorizing you to con- 
clude with me an agreement, whereby, at my expense, a vault 
or tomb may be constructed, under the temple, wherein may 
be deposited the mortal remains of the late John Adams, and 
of Abigail, his beloved and only wife." In accordance with 
this request of Mr. Adams, there was conveyed to him by in- 
dentui-e, a " portion of the soil in the cellar, situated under 
the porch at the entrance of the said temple, and partitioned 



61 

off by Avails, being the central division of the said cellar un- 
der the porch, and containing fourteen feet in length and 
fourteen in breadth." By the same indenture, liberty was 
granted to affix to any part of the walls of the temple tablets 
with obituary inscriptions. Accordingly, on the east end of 
the edifice, at the side of the pulpit, a mural monument was 
erected, surmounted by a bust of John Adams, from the 
chisel of Greenough. 

On the tablets, beneath the bust, are the following inscrip- 
tions : 



LIBBRTATEM, AMICITIAM, FIDEM KETINEBIS. 

D. 0. M. 



Beneath these walls 

are deposited the mortal remains of 

JOHN ADAMS, 

Son of John and Susanna (Bojlston) Adams ; 

Second President of the United States ; 

Born -J^ October, 1735 ; 

On the Fourth of July, 1776, 

He Pledged his Life, Fortune, and Sacred 

Honor 

To the Independence of his Country ; 

On the third of September, 1783, 

He affixed his seal to the definitive Treaty 

With Great Britain, 

Which acknowledged that Independence, 

And consummated the redemption of his 

pledge. 

On the Fourth of July, 1826, 

He was summoned 

To the Independence of Immortality, 

And to the Judgment of his God. 

This house will bear witness to his piety j 

This town, his birth-place, to his 

munificence ; 

History to his Patriotism ; 

Posterity to the depth and compass 

of his mind. 



At his side 

Sleeps, till the Trump shall sound, 

ABIGAIL, 

His beloved and only wife, 

Daughter of Wm. and Elizabeth (Quincy) 

Smith ; 

In every relation of life a pattern 

Of Filial, Conjugal, Maternal, and Social 

Virtue. 

Bom Nov. ^, 1744, 

Deceased 28 Oct. 1818, 

Mi. 74. 

Married 25 Oct. 1764. 

During an union of more than half a 

century, 

They survived, in harmony of sentiment, 

principle, and affection. 

The tempests of civil commotion ; 

Meeting undaunted, and surmounting 

The terrors and trials of that Revolution 

AMiich secured the Freedom of their 

Country, 

Improved the condition of their tunes. 

And brightened the prospects of futurity 

To the race of man upon Earth. 



PILGRIM, 
From lives thus spent thy earthly duties learn. 
From Fancy's dreams to active Virtue turn ; 
Let Freedom, Friendship, Faith, thy soul engage. 
And serve Uke them thy country and thy age. 



^ 



